Can't call this a story, when there really isn't one. Hard to call it a character study, either, when Krause's Schultze barely exists as a sketch.
What's interesting here is the stance of the camera eye. The actors are inseparable from the composition, the cuts are mostly static, at a measured distance. You can count on one hand the number of times the camera pans, to the right when playing accordion in Germany, to the left when dancing in the U.S.
The 'storyline' is only there to maintain rigidity to the cinematic form. The camera compositions follow the content...monochrome, inert, exact, just as we know or imagine East Germany.
Some pleasant moments with the bickering Prussian vs. the Saxon as they debate what Krause sees, equal to what we see.
Some visual irony matching the story's implied irony.
What's interesting here is the stance of the camera eye. The actors are inseparable from the composition, the cuts are mostly static, at a measured distance. You can count on one hand the number of times the camera pans, to the right when playing accordion in Germany, to the left when dancing in the U.S.
The 'storyline' is only there to maintain rigidity to the cinematic form. The camera compositions follow the content...monochrome, inert, exact, just as we know or imagine East Germany.
Some pleasant moments with the bickering Prussian vs. the Saxon as they debate what Krause sees, equal to what we see.
Some visual irony matching the story's implied irony.